Bruins may look at draft a bit differently this year.

Friday

Jun 26, 2009 at 12:01 AMJun 26, 2009 at 5:18 AM

Mike Loftus

They might trade. They will draft. Whether the Bruins make deals to add choices, or simply improve their position with the five selections they took to the Bell Centre in Montreal, Boston will add to its prospect list by the time the NHL Entry Draft ends Saturday afternoon.

And the B’s, who have plunged in the draft order as they have risen in the NHL standings for the last two seasons, may approach the first round differently as a result.

“I would still say ‘best player available,’” general manager Peter Chiarelli said during a pre-draft conference call, “but because we’re picking at 25 (in Round 1), we’ve got kind of an alternate list we’ll look at, based on kind of a combination of best player and need.”

Technically, the 2009 Entry Draft is Chiarelli’s third at the head of Boston’s draft table, but the Bruins had selected him to replace Mike O’Connell before the 2006 draft was held. (Still under contract to Ottawa at the time, Chiarelli had to sit with the Senators on draft day.) Whether that counts as the first “Chiarelli Draft” or not, the fact remains that the B’s have spent their last three first-round picks on centers: Phil Kessel (since moved to wing) at No. 5 overall in 2006, Zach Hamill at No. 8 in ’07, and Joe Colborne at No. 16 in ’08. Four of Boston’s five other selections last year were also players listed as centers.

Factor in the drafts of 2003 (Patrice Bergeron, Round 2; Byron Bitz, Round 4), ’04 (David Krejci, Round 2) and ’05 (Vladimir Sobotka, Round 4), plus the free-agent theft of Blake Wheeler last summer, and it’s easy to see why some of those natural centers – Kessel, Bitz, Wheeler, even Bergeron in his rookie season – have learned new positions.

It’s also easy to conclude that Boston can probably get away with selecting fewer forwards in this draft.

“We haven’t drafted a lot of defensemen lately,” Chiarelli said. “I’ve asked our guys to rank players, not based on need, but based on best player, and then maybe when we’re done, we’ll look at it.”

While that doesn’t necessarily mean the B’s are committed to selecting a blue-liner with their first-round choice, it is an admission that they could use help at that spot down the line, and possibly a hint that if two players are otherwise equal in the eyes of the scouts when it’s Boston’s turn to choose, a defenseman might be selected over a forward.

Chiarelli’s staff would love to see him move ahead in the first round, replace a second-round pick traded in 2007 (the B’s got Petteri Nokelainen, who was traded in March after nearly two seasons for defenseman Steve Montador), or both. If the price to improve or add picks is too steep for the GM’s liking, though, he thinks the Bruins will still get what they want.

“It’s sometimes dangerous when you draft on need,” Chiarelli said, “but there are some good defensemen in that first round.”

Whether in a defenseman or forward, the Bruins’ staff will have considered what it can measure, up-close observations on- and off-ice, the histories of similar players, the competition level faced by a given prospect, and best guesses when it comes to whether an otherwise can’t-miss kid can overcome a potentially fatal flaw in his game. Character definitely counts, too.

“We’ve all heard war stories about guys we’ve got and guys we’ve missed,” said Chiarelli, who made Wayne Smith director of amateur scouting and moved John Weisbrod to director of collegiate scouting so Scott Bradley, who had directed Boston’s draft efforts since 1997, could expand his duties to include pro scouting. “You learn from those things.”

Reach Mike Loftus at mloftus@ledger.com. Read more of his Bruins coverage on Blog of Ice at PatriotLedger.com/sports